


There's No Place Like Home

by soldiermom1973



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Memory Lane, a picture is worth a thousand memories, there's no place like home
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-28 23:54:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7662058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soldiermom1973/pseuds/soldiermom1973
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Annie Shepard can't sleep, so she wanders to the cockpit to keep Joker company.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There's No Place Like Home

**Author's Note:**

> I saw [this post](http://vorchagirl.tumblr.com/post/148363422540/dafsmith-jeff-and-normandy-forever-together) over on tumblr and got this idea in my head. It involves Annie Shepard, my canon Shep. (I swear, one of these days, I'm going to tell her story & introduce her to you guys. I swear!).

Annie tossed and turned for several hours before finally admitting the sandman wouldn't be paying her a visit tonight. One minute she was too warm, the next, she was too cold. Her mind wouldn't shut off no matter what she did to try and relax. Sighing heavily, she knew that it was because it was all still strange to her - she never slept well in unfamiliar places. She finally threw back the blankets, tossed on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, slid her feet into her slippers, and padded her way to the elevator. She contemplated visiting Karin to see if she had something to help her sleep, then decided against it. It was late and the good doctor needed her sleep, too.

She sighed, running her fingers through her dark brown locks and going over _again_ in her mind the next mission they had – who she'd be taking, what they might encounter, if there was anything in the Illusive Man's intel that she may have overlooked. They were headed to Omega to round up some salarian doctor and a turian mercenary. Annie hoped that they would not only agree to help, but that they'd also fit in with the rest of the crew. Things were finally starting to come together in a nice way and she didn't want anything to mess up the team dynamic that was quickly building. The soft hiss of the doors opening brought her out of her reverie and she quietly made her way around the galaxy map.

The ship was on its night cycle, so the CIC was practically deserted. The lights had been dimmed, allowing the orange glow from holographic Normandy map to dominate the area more than it usually did. Annie moved quietly, not wanting to draw attention to herself or disturb the few crew who were burning the midnight oil.

As she neared the cockpit, she saw a strange light in front of Joker's chair. Annie knew it wasn't from the controls and stations around his pilot's seat because of the way the glow flickered and moved. She slowed her pace, taking extra care to stay silent in part because she didn't want to disturb him and in part because she was wondering what exactly he was doing.

Somehow, though, Joker knew she was back there and quickly shut down whatever it was he'd been looking at. “Couldn't sleep, Commander?” he asked, his fingers flitting over the controls, casting a quick glance over his shoulder.

“How did you know I was there?” Annie chuckled, settling into the seat next to him. The co-pilot's chair didn't spin like Joker's did, so she turned herself sideways and dangled her legs over the arm of the seat.

“I've always had good hearing,” he shrugged. “Besides, I learned in a hurry to keep one ear listening behind me in case someone decides they're going to dump a cup of ice water over my head.”

“I would let you know if that were someone's intent, Mr. Moreau,” EDI intoned, popping up next to him.

“Yeah, right,” Joker huffed. “You'd probably help keep me distracted to get back at me for smearing your camera lenses with grease.”

“While I find the thought of you being doused with ice water appealing, my thoughts were more directed to the leather seat you have become so fond of. The water would damage the leather's...”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Joker muttered. “Just watch it or I'll find something more creative to do with that grease. Oh... wait.... Oh, that really didn't sound good, did it?” Joker closed his eyes and shook his head. EDI waited a few moments (if she had been human, Annie would have sworn she would have been smirking) before winking back out.

“No, that didn't sound good at all,” Annie laughed. “So, what were you looking at when I came in?”

“Nothing,” came the too-quick reply.

“Well, I know it wasn't porn because the glow wasn't right....”

“And I do NOT want to know how you know that,” Joker declared.

“Ha ha. Seriously, though. It was more like a holo of something. Come on,” she implored her friend, “What were you looking at?”

Joker glanced at her, sighed, then danced his fingers over his wrist. Immediately, a holo of the SR1 popped up and slowly began to rotate. Annie's chest tightened and her sinuses started to burn as she watched the image of her old ship slowly spin above Joker's hand. So many memories....

“You remember how Garrus and Wrex refused to pull duty up here because they couldn't fit in the seat?” Joker asked, grinning.

“Well, Wrex, yeah. Dude's as big as a house,” Annie admitted. “We'd have probably had to replace the damn seat every time he sat in it. With Garrus, though, it was his height.”

For the next hour, the pair sat, laughing and reminiscing about the time spent on the SR1 – Liara's inability to tell when someone was joking with her, Tali's need to prove herself, Garrus and his calibrations, Wrex and his 'warm' personality, Kaidan and how he was always busy at that console but no one ever really knew what he was doing. Talk turned to Ash and how she always made sure everyone's weapons were immaculate and a somber silence settled over the pair. Annie was thinking about Virmire and knew that Joker was, too.

“You miss her?” Annie asked quietly.

“Every damn day,” Joker sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Don't get me wrong, Cerberus did a hell of a job with this one...”

“I know, leather seats,” Annie smirked, trying to lighten the mood a little.

“Yeah, leather seats,” Joker admitted, running his fingers across the armrest. “But it's different. We were like family, you know? A really dysfunctional family, but still...” He cleared his throat and turned his gaze from the holo to his friend's face. “This is just so different. I trusted every single person on our old ship, Commander. This one, I mean, they're all Cerberus.”

“Technically, you are, too,” Annie observed, raising her eyebrow just a bit.

“Yeah, well, only because of you,” he muttered. “Seriously, Commander, this is nice, but it isn't...”

He quickly turned away from Annie, but not before she caught him wiping the back of his hand across his cheek. She inhaled deeply and stood, gently squeezing Joker's shoulder.

“I know,” she whispered. “It isn't home.”


End file.
